VirtualC64 utilizes a cycle based simulation engine to achieve high compatibility. Although cycle accurate emulation consumes more computing time than, e.g., line based emulation, all modern machines provide enough computing power to imitate a C64 in real-time. VirtualC64 does not yet reach the awesome compatibility of the classical emulators such as Hoxs64, Vice, or Frodo. However, plenty of games are already running and the list of compatible applications grows with every new release. Right now, VirtualC64 supports the following file formats: D64, T64, PRG, P00.

VirtualC64 is open source software published under the GNU general public license. The core emulator is written in C++. The graphical user interface is a native Cocoa application written in Objective-C.